Eleven Favorite Moments from the Rise & Fall Podcast

Image:
via
Robert Simpson

Rise & Fall: How Ideas Move the World, a podcast hosted by ARI’s Amanda Maxham, looks at the power of ideas to shape human affairs. Here are some of our favorite moments from the show so far. The links below take you directly to those moments within the YouTube video of the podcast. What are your favorite moments? Call and tell us on the Rise & Fall telephone line (888-673-5553).

From episode 1: The Four Events that Significantly Emboldened Islamic Totalitarians

2. Leonard Peikoff on the Salman Rushdie Affair. Philosopher Leonard Peikoff was asked in a Q&A at the Ford Hall Forum in 1989 about the Rushdie Affair. Here’s his discussion of the government’s response, the precedent it set, and the probability of more attacks on free speech in the West.

4. Richard Tren on DDT. Richard Tren, a founder of Africa Fighting Malaria, talks about the first-hand experience that convinced him to advocate for the use of DDT in Africa, an insecticide that the United Nations was forcing out of use.

8. Onkar Ghate on “Islamophobia.” Ghate says that “Islamophobia” is an anti-concept deliberately originated to make discussion of the motivations of terrorists impossible.

9. Don Watkins on the Careful Choice of Words. Don Watkins, director of education at the Center for Industrial Progress (and former Ayn Rand Institute fellow), talks about words as precious tools that can illuminate the world around you.

From episode 4: Let’s Talk About Sweden

10. Carl Svanberg on Swedish Television. Carl Svanberg, a research associate at the Ayn Rand Institute and a Swede, tells the story of a Swedish television entrepreneur and his battle to create a television channel outside of government control.

11. Don Watkins on the Evil of Socialism. Watkins talks about the Khmer Rouge, a socialist regime in Cambodia, and the socialist ideas that led to mass starvation. "If you say that society trumps the individual,” he says, “don't be surprised when you see a lot of dead individuals.”